1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recognizing apparatus that can be shared by a plurality of client apparatuses, a control method, and a computer-readable storage medium that stores a program for implementing the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been an image recognizing apparatus that has the function of recognizing images such as an image picked up by an image pickup device (discriminating between an adult and a child, discriminating a male and a female, and so on). Also, there has been an image recognizing system in which one image recognizing apparatus and a plurality of client apparatuses (hereafter referred to as clients) are connected together via a network, and the plurality of clients can be provided with image recognition processing by sharing the one image recognizing apparatus.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram schematically showing an example of the construction of an image recognizing system with a shared image recognizing apparatus at its center according to a prior art.
Referring to FIG. 5, a plurality of clients 56, 57, and 58 are connected to a shared image recognizing apparatus 50 via a network 59. The shared image recognizing apparatus 50 is comprised of a camera 51 (for example, a video camera or a still camera), an image recognition processing section 52, a recognition object registering section 53, a recognition result storing section 54, and a client managing section 55. At predetermined time intervals, the client managing section 55 sequentially gives the right of use of the shared image recognizing apparatus 50 (image recognition processing section 52) to the plurality of clients that have made requests.
First, a description will be given of operation in the case that a single, client uses the shared image recognizing apparatus 50 in the above-mentioned conventional image recognizing system. The client 56 transmits information designating a recognition object to the shared image recognizing apparatus 50 via the network 59 and requests image recognition processing. The client managing section 55 of the shared image recognizing apparatus 50 registers the information designating the recognition object in the recognition object registering section 53.
The image recognition processing section 52 recognizes the recognition object registered in the recognition object registering section 53 from image data inputted from the camera 51 and stores the recognition result in the recognition result storing section 54. The client 56 can exclusively use the image recognition processing section 52 during only a time period determined for the client 56 by the client managing section 55. When a predetermined time period has elapsed, the client managing section 55 transfers the recognition result stored in the recognition result storing section 54 to the client 56 via the network 59.
Next, a description will be given of operation in the case that, for example, the clients 56 to 58 request image recognition processing to the client managing section 55 at about the same time. The client managing section 55 gives the right of use to the clients in the order in which the requests were received, and gives a predetermined recognition usage time period to the client given the right of use. When an elapsed time period of image recognition processing carried out by the mage recognition processing section 52 for the client given the right of use becomes equal to the above-mentioned recognition usage time period, the client managing section 55 changes the right of use to the next client. Namely, the client managing section 55 changes the right of use from the client 56 to the client 57 and the client 58 in this order at predetermined time intervals.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of control for changing the right of use of the shared image recognizing apparatus 50 (the image recognition processing section 52) by the clients 56 to 58.
Referring to FIG. 6, the clients 56 to 58 request image recognition processing to the client managing section 55 at a time t0. The image recognition processing section 52 carries out image recognition processing for a recognition object requested by the client 56 during a time period from the time t0 to a time t1. The image recognition processing section 52 carries out image recognition processing for a recognition object requested by the client 57 during a time period from the time t1 to a time t2. The image recognition processing section 52 carries out image recognition processing for a recognition object requested by the client 58 during a time period from the time t2 to a time t3.
As a related art in the above technical field, the flowing art has been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H10-42278).
However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following problem. As shown in FIG. 6, the client managing section 55 changes the right of use from the client 56 to the client 57 at the time t1 at which the time period for which the client 56 is given the right of use has elapsed. After that, the client managing section 55 changes the right of use from the client 57 to the client 58 at the time t2 at which the time period for which the client 57 is given the right of use has elapsed. In the conventional image recognizing system, such control is carried out to change the right of use. For this reason, there is the problem that waiting time before the start of image recognition processing for recognition objects requested by the client 57 and the client 58 is long.